ROAD PAVING IN IRMO

Just some information about roads in Irmo. There has been some talk about how roads are in bad shape. I will not disagree that roads in Irmo just like elsewhere in and throughout South Carolina need work. All roads are paid for by taxes from you, somehow, somewhere. Gas tax, county property tax, federal taxes. Money is collected, sent back to states, counties, etc. and disbursed through various committees, commissions, agencies, government bodies, grants, etc. Irmo gets very little. Roads are the responsibility of State and/or Counties for maintaining. Irmo may have two or three roads in our Town that belong to us, not the state or counties.

The gas taxes collected, are sent to the state, some sent to the counties. State has guidelines as to how much percentage-wise goes to repaving, goes to intersection improvements (also includes red lights), and percentage to safety improvements (shoulder improvements, guard rails), and a percentage to bridges. Gas tax that goes to a County is allocated out either by the county council, county delegation, or some type of mixture which may or may not include municipalities in that body. Your property tax that is allocated towards county roads and maintenance is allocated in some degree based on public works department, priority list and with that county's Council.

Richland County also has the Penny Tax program of which some of that money is used for the maintenance of roads. Out of that pot for the 2016/2017 budget there is a proposed resurfacing list. That list includes a total of 189 roads with a total of 35.9 miles. Eight districts in Richland County were on the list, Irmo is in district one, and some in District 2. We had a total of 20 roads on the list, in the Town limits. For a total of 4.68 miles. The average for 35.9 miles for eight districts is 4.49 miles/district. So residents of Irmo did get our fair share of penny tax spent on our roads and Highway 76/176 Broad River Rd, from Royal Tower to the split of 76/176 at Tractor Supply is scheduled for widening to five lanes, sidewalks, bicycle paths. This project is long overdue and is crucial for future traffic flow. Yes, it will be difficult during construction and even before with property acquisitions, and all that entails. All of those along that section of road will suffer in some form, some more so than others, some a lot more.

But back to our roads in Irmo, in South Carolina for that matter. Roads cost hundreds of thousands of dollars per mile, just to repave. That is a lot of money, a lot of tax dollars, a lot of taxes that most don't want to pay. I am not advocating for higher taxes, just stating a fact.

The Town of Irmo has no property tax, no gas tax, no penny tax, and we get no part of the gas tax, penny tax, or property tax from either county, except what they allocate for roads and services in our Town. People can talk about our crumbling roads and how we should fix them, or how we should spend our time resolving other issues. But we work to resolve what is within our power, our jurisdiction, our ability, and leave the other things we have no say on or power, no decision-making authority to those that do have that jurisdictional authority, such as school issues to school boards, road issues to county or state authorities. Yes, we can attempt to influence but so can you, the residents, by calling, contacting your County or State level representatives. I did ask my colleagues on Council earlier this year and they did agree to send a letter to all responsible parties, SCDOT, County Elected, State Representatives, Senators, Capital COG officials of all the main roads in and around the Town of Irmo that we felt like needed attention. Either in regards to widening, intersection improvements, etc. that would help traffic flow around Irmo.

And according to the list mentioned above, the fact is, we did get a proportionate share of road resurfacing with the Richland County Penny Tax. Maybe even a little above. So yes more needs to be done, but a lot has been accomplished as well. It is my understanding that a new list is being prepared of roads next to be paved with the Richland County Penny Tax as soon as that list is released, I will make it available and we will see what roads are in the Irmo area again.